Thank you -- I hope so, too. Muddling through....

I guess it is a scavenger hunt. Although, this one goes something like: Missing half the shelves? Well, set the legs there, and when we find the rest of the parts you can finish putting it together. I'm so sorry about the piano! I can only imagine (we moved my childhood piano ourselves. This move marks the 7th time I've helped to move it (14, if you count the packing and the unpacking ...ha!) The piano is older than I am -- probably about 70-80 years -- so it's been moved a lot!

Thanks everyone... the saga continues today. I had to leave around 3pm yesterday to take two of the girls to practice -- the movers and my husband gave up trying to figure out what anything was, so it's all been dropped wherever there was floor space. 😂 We are starting in the garage today (I know, weird place to start). The garage also houses my laundry room. There are about 12 nice plastic garage shelving sets that are buried out there... and we can't put anything away until those are up. So -- we have to empty the garage. After that, I expect we'll move a few of the things to where we know they will be and then stack boxes around the perimeter of the rooms, so we can put together a couch to sit on. Then, probably fix the rest of the beds -- and then let the kids work on putting their clothing away. The randomness as to how everything was packed escapes me. Two of my couch feet (not sure where the others are) were in a bedroom dresser. My oldest started putting together a set of corner shelves. The box contained all of the legs, and half the shelves. We don't know where the other shelves are. In some ways, I feel like you have to really try to pack this badly.

I heard that story -- in hind sight, we should have just stopped everything too. I haven't been able to determine if we are missing anything yet -- so far, the most we've noticed are "extra" things that were packed in our things, but are not ours (a random coffee cup, a strange coke-a-cola flask? We have 75 days to file a claim OH no!! Our car(s) are supposed to be shipped separately and empty (we didn't ship a car this time). That does not sound pleasant! The whole pack yourself part appeals to me more now than ever before. I packed up my books (because of our prior moving experience), so our school stuff would be easier for me to find. I put all of the decor in one spot, packing up anything that we had original packaging for (figurines, things like that)Part of the problem is that they took stuff I had in certain drawers and packed it in boxes (like clothing), we did have stuffed animals in clear plastic bags. Many of the drawers were then shipped empty. If I had been packing, the linens, towels, sheets, pillows, blankets would have been "packed" into the empty bookshelves, clothes and other soft goods packed inside dresser drawers. That would have saved a lot of container space (and shipping weight. We still haven't found most of my silverware -- we've found bits and pieces in various boxes, and the Longaberger basket we kept it in (my dishware was all on top of an open counter, as we didn't have drawer space). None of this makes any sense. Oh, I miss the days of one large U-haul trailer...lol I do expect over the next several years many of my books will be leaving me as my youngest grows up. As they move out, they will hopefully take some of their own books (also reducing my collection). I had two very large bookshelves of books to get rid of before we left Italy...I expect I will lose at least that much again in the next four years.

I may not have a couch to sit on until this all gets through the insurance. There is just so much. I guess we need to re-focus our efforts on unpacking/sorting/repacking what needs to be repacked to figure out what survived and worry about getting everything really functioning later. This insurance claim is going to be awful. I'm not sure how DH is going to sign off on the paperwork (we have this sheet of "no number" -- and at the end we're supposed to count the empty spots and guess what is there or not there? At this point, I may tell DH just to make sure all of our HVG are actually there and accounted for, and well, if random stuff is missing we'll have to deal with it later.

That's about how I feel right now. I think we've found all of the spices... but you never know! One would think the spices (that are all in the same cabinet in the kitchen) could be found in say one or two boxes? FOUR. Spices have been in FOUR different boxes. I wish I could say I couldn't imagine what it would be like to have someone dump the bins -- but I do (maybe not as badly as yours -- I had all of my school supplies in nice stacking bins (one for pencils, one for crayons, acrylic paints...etc. etc.) I opened this box of all of my stacking bins... which are now EMPTY. I have yet to open the boxes labeled "school supplies" out of sheer fear. I *hope* they are all in the same box, but if they packed my school supplies anything like they packed my spices, I'm done for. I've taken to putting the boxes of randomness into the dining room. I'm going to have to unpack, sort, and repack some things -- it's going to take awhile, and it's the room with the most "free" space.

In the world of moving -- you can't make this stuff up -- we're winning. So, they packed up my house in Italy in June. This isn't my first rodeo (I've moved 17 times in 50 years). We are on Day two (probably will finish getting stuff off the truck around 8pm tonight), however, we will be a long, long way from being moved in. Here's the thing... you know how you put things into boxes (usually things that belong in the same room, or are at least of the same type)? Well, it's fairly customary to you know, LABEL the boxes with what room they go to, and maybe what is in them. About 20-25% of my boxes are either missing labels or are completely and utterly miss-labeled. How bad is it? Let's start with the minor things: Box #4 -- Girls' Room -- Box Spring (on the inventory sheet), in the box? Mattress. Box #5 -- Girls' Room -- Mattress (on the inventory sheet), in the box? Box Spring. Items 55-70 -- Plastic Tote (every line on the inventory sheet says plastic tote -- these totes contained everything from school records, to clothes to cassette tapes, to electrical cords, home decor, to doll clothes to garden tools -- one of the totes that I had packed was already labeled "Blankets" -- but nothing was put on the inventory or on the outside wrapper-- you get the idea). Box #35 -- Plasticware (in the box -- CHINA) Box #235 -- Linens (in the box -- DVDs, remotes, etc. We still have no idea where our sheets and blankets are...let alone towels.) Not in a box...just loose in the crate... a collectible LEGO set (probably about $60 new, now valued at $100+). Needless to say, it came open during shipment and LEGOs are everywhere. I doubt we have all of the pieces. It was the ONLY set my son didn't hand-pack, he figured it would be okay since it was, you know, IN a box. All they would have to do is either put it inside one of the other 500+ boxes they packed or wrapped up...but no. They packed my Waterford Crystal in a manner I've never seen... unwrapped, in between items that were wrapped. And, in other news... how do you break glasses that are packed in their original package? You know, the kind with styrofoam? To put the sheer amount of how bad this is into perspective -- we have 505 boxes on the inventory sheet (not including all of the random stuff wrapped and stuffed inside things like book cases). At 20-25% completely wrong (I am being conservative), that leaves us with 100-150 boxes/bins we either have had to open to figure out where they go, or once we open them, have to move them somewhere else entirely. The only thing that is keeping the number this low, is the fact I packed 95% of the books myself (we probably have about 50-75 boxes of books). I had also packed all of my clothes into my dresser (apparently, they removed the stuff I put in the drawers, boxed it up somewhere else -- and then packed the drawers with other stuff???). That may go up as we open boxes to look for broken things (you know, the stuff I can't put away because my furniture that was supposed to hold them is... well... broken). We bought a grand total of 5 pieces of NICE Italian furniture (3 pieces are antiques, 2 are more modern). Thus far two of the antiques are broken and one of the modern pieces is destroyed -- but the Ikea Billy shelves made it just fine (I can't even...) My purple Italian sofa bed is in 5 pieces (not including the cushions). I have no idea if that can be put together again (ETA: Nope, it's broken beyond repair. One of the major frame boards is broken and through the fabric) 😞 This too, shall pass -- on the bright side, my bed is off the floor. Meanwhile, photographing and adding the broken things to a very long list for this moving claim. I thought the one from moving to Italy was long -- but it really wasn't. We just lost a few large $$ items (punched whole in a $800 sectional, broke my Waterford pitcher, a couple of inexpensive dressers and the kids' play kitchen). The breakage coming back is much more extensive and in some ways harder to replace in kind/quality. Wish me luck -- it's going to be a very, very long weekend.

It's move-in week -- I'm not sure how much I'll be around. We closed on our house on Friday. Drove to Fredericksburg to buy a car in Manassas, and rent a U-haul to take the things from my parent's house. Sunday, we packed the truck, drove to VA Beach and packed the truck with more, and got to our new house in Hampton around 8:30 at night, made a rapid dash to unload the truck, and get the internet set up because... Debate class (online this morning -- make up class for a student who missed on Friday) Shower/get ready Get stuff that was hastily removed from the truck (so we could access the beds) and move it to where it actually goes (vs. the center of the family room) Finish unloading the truck (ha -- I don't have to do that, but it's happening under my watch) Piano/washer & dryer Return the UHaul, get some food Go shopping, so we can prepare to unpack the kitchen tomorrow, get some pillows, dishes, you know... necessary things). The next few days are going to be a complete and utter blur.

I actually use several Cengage texts... this would be incredibly helpful

In my son's case... it was 4 hours of work which required both the book and internet access. The assignment was posted around noon on Sunday prior to his 9am class on Monday (he did set up notifications, so as soon as it was posted, he knew about it and checked it). He was one of I'm guessing very few people in his 200-person class who did it (based upon what the prof said) The prof essentially bumped the due date until Wednesday. His chem class is flipped as you describe. Had we been traveling back from NC (which wouldn't have been out of the question), he would not have had an opportunity to complete the work until late at night. I don't think the complaint is so much about assignments, but of a lack of notice for assignments. Adults (and students) make plans based upon what we know is happening -- I don't know anyone who sits around just in case an assignment (or in my case a job) shows up and we need to turn it around in less than 24 hours... especially on the weekend. An assignment due the first day of class should have more than 19 hours notice (which includes normal sleeping hours) to allow students the opportunity to schedule around it. As my son is also an athlete, he has to practice at 6am, and would go straight from practice to class.

100 mile round trip for swimming (left at 0530 -- still at the pool, but almost done) Public Forum Debate Class Prep (actually kind of fun -- doing this intermittently from the hotspot here at the pool). Hot spot tested 😄 ensure video links are converted and uploaded to Youku, add new links to course document. ensure I have enough activities to fill 90 minutes with 2-6 students (introductory, skill exercises, topic ideas) plan the 90 minute class (When/where we are taking 5 minute breaks; highlight interactive activities; ensure homework is planned and understandable) upload documents/ppt to class server Upload Day 2, just in case things run TOO fast. Assist w/ College Applications (does this ever end???) Laundry/Pack Go to dinner with my dh (returning to where it all began -- the scene of our first date 23 years ago). Pick up son from college at 10pm! Get back, go to sleep -- because I have to get up early for my class in China :D)

I just make judicious use of the delete button. Most ads/promotions go right in the trash -- unless it's something I'm planning to buy or shop (for example, I get at least one weekly email from Michael's -- not going, no time to purchase -- don't bother opening, just trash it). Once we move into our house and as we get closer to fall, I will start looking at ads a bit more with an eye toward Christmas. News/blog updates -- I may keep those hanging around to read during a dead period of time. But, they wind up trashed (read or not the next day). I'm not going to die if I miss a good article. Business/Work related emails always get opened -- then immediately trashed or moved to where they need to be (especially, if it's something I can't deal with at the moment). I probably don't read 90% of my emails, and trash them unread. The other 10% usually gets opened and scanned. I don't have time to worry about non essential things I might be missing.

There are still issues with the demographic information being utilized. In some areas a zip code may be a monolithic reference to a certain lifestyle (90210). In other areas, not so much. You still have people living in poverty sharing zip-codes with multi-million dollar homes (I think this is most often in what used to be rural areas that have become absorbed by major metropolitan cities (Northern VA for example). The same zip code can contain an excellent elementary school and a not-so-great one. Those kids almost all wind up at the same high school (what is funny, the school our old home was zoned for was further away than a different school -- if we were one street over, we'd be slotted for the closer high school). Our new high school graduates 89% of their students, but only 15% participate in SAT/ACTs and roughly 20% participate in AP courses. My child(ren) are going to be a HUGE anomaly if we are being compared to the students there.

Wow, that would be really upsetting. I can only imagine what is going on. Unreasonable professors are a royal thorn in my side. I had one -- one I tried to avoid and got stuck with a second time. I should have filed a formal complaint and didn't. One of my regrets.

We are seeing what we can do WRT interviews in lieu of LORs, or other individuals who might suffice. Full disclosure -- NROTC/AFROTC are only really being looked at for schools she may not swim for, or wouldn't have sufficient scholarship money (for example, she will receive full-tuition+++ from LU and VA Wesleyan, needs ROTC for VMI/Princeton/Dartmouth. She would most likely not do ROTC at a school it was not a financial necessity, and join post grad instead. The nomination applications are underway, but thusfar, we still have not heard back from the Senators' offiices regarding substitutions to the specific LORs, nor has she heard back from the biology teacher (two emails, two weeks). Thus far all attempts at a math evaluation/rec have been a bust.

Laundry (done) School with kiddos College app stuff (found everything I need for the transcript requests for the DoDEA school!!) Swimming Testing out a 4G hotspot in a Zoom meeting (where, I hope he tells me that I can officially start the full time job in about 5 days). This test is for recurring online courses I teach in China/Vietnam/Korea (speech and debate...seems I'm going full circle back to my roots).

Leave at 530am to drive 50+ miles to swim practice. Get stuck on the bridge due to an accident. Watch the sunrise over the bay from my turned-off car. Skip the last 30 minutes of practice once traffic starts moving, go to a farmers market and ooh and ahh and buy stuff I wasn't going to, because they had meat at half price....hold myself back from buying more. Drive back to VA Beach, stopping at CFA, because we're hungry. Discover a huge pile of dirty clothes that apparently didn't get included in the weekend laundry (all of my stuff?). Run a load of laundry I hadn't planned to, but just relieved because I've found all of my missing clothing! Start working on administrative tasks (cleaning up my computer files, lesson planning plans, answer emails) Help DD with college app stuff (nag, nag, nag some more). Pack some more things. Leave at 2pm to drive 50+ miles to HOPEFULLY attend swim practice this afternoon. Meander back in time to pick up the birthday boy after his evening lab gets out at 7:30pm. I will be going to bed when I get home around 8pm. Because I have to get up for morning practice again tomorrow.

Do our sons go to the same school, with the same prof? This happened to us too!

Dog Food Recipe (done) Dog Food Prep Laundry put away/pack (2 loads) Debate Class Prep (teach my first debate class in 10 years to a group of Chinese kids on Friday) Dental Appointments (new dentist...always fun) Pack up office area Work on common ap (so dreading this!) Swimming (all afternoon...)

AMEN! That has been incredibly frustrating for me as well.

Thanks, I clarified with DD -- she wrote it down as "something she would have to do" -- but understood that it wasn't part of the application process. I didn't understand her note in that way. Misunderstanding on my part cleared up.

Food prep: Fresh fruit salad (done) Breakfast Burritos (trying a new chorizo sausage, subbing riced cauliflower for potatoes) (done -- cauliflower is a keeper, especially for DH and me) Guacamole Taco meat & other sides (we're prepping some food for the week. Oldest heads to college all day, no food plan -- so trying to make sure he has enough food as he's in training, so we need to make sure he's getting enough calories and protein throughout the day that is easy to eat cold or reheat --- he has a lunchbox that would normally fit enough food for three people!) Freezer/fridge clean out (moving in about 7 days, need to make a good inventory of what we have in the freezer here, to make sure we use it or plan to use it soon) Laundry (2 more loads) Bathroom Cleaning Kitchen Floors Prep for my Friday Debate Class (I'm teaching speech and debate to Chinese students). Help DD with more college stuff (I've been avoiding the common ap, but apparently we can't get out of it this year 😞 )

I'm so sorry for your family's loss. Even under the worst circumstances and broken relationships, losing family members is never easy. My prayers are with you all.

Thank you so much for this -- it's exactly what I needed to hear. She hasn't had a typical high school experience (or even a typical homeschool highschool experience). Yes, I'm having her do all the contacting (unless it's financial aid questions, I typically handle those as they involve letters of professional judgement type things -- scholarship questions are hers). Thank you!!

Thank you for the idea... that pot is way too far removed (she would have been 11, and she is very much not the same timid 11 year old girl they knew :D). She is using one of our former team coaches (one of my assistant coaches), though. We are stretching... and reaching!! I may have found a local math instructor who may give her an evaluation -- she'll have to sit down with the teacher at minimum for a couple of hours, but I think that would be enough for her to figure out what her math aptitude is (I don't speak math beyond Geometry/Alg 2, so PonyGirl might like the opportunity to discuss fancy math terminology with someone who truly appreciates it!)